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Monday, June 15, 2015

Best Books of 2012

Best of 2012

The 10 Best Books of 2012

BRING UP THE BODIESBy Hilary Mantel.A John Macrae Book/ Henry Holt & Company, $28.
Taking up where her previous novel, “Wolf Hall,” left off, Mantel
makes the seemingly worn-out story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn newly
fascinating and suspenseful. Seen from the perspective of Henry’s chief
minister, Thomas Cromwell, the ruthless maneuverings of the court move
swiftly to the inevitable executions. Both this novel and its
predecessor were awarded the Man Booker Prize. Might the trilogy’s
forthcoming conclusion, in which Cromwell will meet his demise, score
Mantel a hat trick?BUILDING STORIESBy Chris Ware.Pantheon Books, $50.
Ware’s innovative graphic novel deepens and enriches the form by
breaking it apart. Packaged in a large box like a board game, the
project contains 14 “easily misplaced elements” — pamphlets, books,
foldout pages — that together follow the residents of a Chicago triplex
(and one anthropomorphized bee) through their ordinary lives. In doing
so, it tackles universal themes including art, sex, family and
existential loneliness in a way that’s simultaneously playful and
profound.A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KINGBy Dave Eggers.McSweeney’s Books, $25.
In an empty city in Saudi Arabia, a ­middle-aged American businessman
waits day after day to close the deal he hopes will redeem his forlorn
life. Eggers, continuing the worldly outlook that informed his recent
books “Zeitoun” and “What Is the What,” spins this spare story — a
globalized “Death of a Salesman” — into a tightly controlled parable of
America’s international standing and a riff on middle-class decline that
approaches Beckett in its absurdist despair.NWBy Zadie Smith.The Penguin Press, $26.95.
Smith’s piercing new novel, her first in seven years, traces the
friendship of two women who grew up in a housing project in northwest
London, their lives disrupted by fateful choices and the brutal
efficiency of chance. The narrative edges forward in fragments,
uncovering truths about identity and money and sex with incandescent
language that, for all of its formal experimentation, is intimate and
searingly direct.THE YELLOW BIRDSBy Kevin Powers.Little, Brown & Company, $24.99.
A veteran of the Iraq war, Powers places that conflict at the center
of his impressionistic first novel, about the connected but diverging
fates of two young soldiers and the trouble one of them has readjusting
to life at home. Reflecting the chaos of war, the fractured narrative
jumps around in time and location, but Powers anchors it with
crystalline prose and a driving mystery: How did the narrator’s friend
die?NONFICTIONBEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS
Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity.By Katherine Boo.Random House, $27.
This National Book Award-winning study of life in Annawadi, a Mumbai
slum, is marked by reporting so rigorous it recalls the muckrakers, and
characters so rich they evoke Dickens. The slum dwellers have a skillful
and empathetic chronicler in Boo, who depicts them in all their
humanity and ruthless, resourceful glory.FAR FROM THE TREE
Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity.By Andrew Solomon.Scribner, $37.50.
For more than a decade, Solomon studied the challenges, risks and
rewards of raising children with “horizontal identities,” traits that
they don’t share with their parents. As he investigates how families
have grown stronger or fallen apart while raising prodigies, dwarfs,
schizophrenics, transgendered children or those conceived in rape, he
complicates everything we thought we knew about love, sacrifice and
success.THE PASSAGE OF POWER
The Years of Lyndon Johnson.By Robert A. Caro.Alfred A. Knopf, $35.
The fourth volume of Caro’s prodigious masterwork, which now exceeds
3,000 pages, explores, with the author’s signature combination of
sweeping drama, psychological insight and painstaking research,
Johnson’s humiliating years as vice president, when he was excluded from
the inner circle of the Kennedy White House and stripped of power. We
know what Johnson does not, that this purgatory is prelude to the event
of a single horrific day, when an assassin’s bullet placed Johnson, and
the nation he now had to lead, on a new course.THE PATRIARCH
The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy.By David Nasaw.The Penguin Press, $40.
Nasaw took six years to complete this sprawling, arresting account of
a banker-cum-speculator-cum-moviemaker-cum-ambassador-cum-dynastic
founder. Joe Kennedy was involved in virtually all the history of his
time, and his biographer persuasively makes the case that he was the
most fascinating member of his large, famous and very formidable family.WHY DOES THE WORLD EXIST?
An Existential Detective Story.By Jim Holt.Liveright Publishing/W. W. Norton & Company, $27.95.
For several centuries now, thinkers have wondered, “Why is there
something rather than nothing?” In search of an answer, Holt takes the
reader on a witty and erudite journey from London to Paris to Austin,
Tex., as he listens to a varied cast of philosophers, scientists and
even novelists offer solutions that are sometimes closely reasoned,
sometimes almost mystical, often very strange, always entertaining and
thought-provoking.YOUNG ADULTBITTERBLUE. By Kristin Cashore. (Dial, $19.99.)
The companion to “Graceling” and “Fire,” this beautiful, haunting and
thrilling high fantasy about a young queen and her troubled kingdom
stands on its own.CODE NAME VERITY. By Elizabeth Wein. (Hyperion, $16.99.) This tale of a spy and a fighter pilot during World War II is at heart a story about female ­friendship.THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. By John Green. (Dutton, $17.99.)
An improbable but predictably wrenching love story about two teenage
cancer patients, written in Green’s signature tone, humorous yet
heart-filled.JEPP, WHO DEFIED THE STARS. By Katherine Marsh. (Hyperion, $16.99.)
A dwarf at court in 16th-century Denmark is the surprising hero in this
novel, which also features the real-life astronomer Tycho Brahe, an
eccentric Danish nobleman.NEVER FALL DOWN. By Patricia McCormick. (Balzer & Bray/Harper­Collins, $17.99.)
This novelized memoir tells the tragic but inspiring life story of Arn
Chorn-Pond, a boy who was 11 years old when the Khmer Rouge took over
Cambodia.SON. By Lois Lowry. (Houghton Mifflin, $17.99.)
In the conclusion to the dystopian “Giver” quartet, Lowry returns to
the story of a mother searching for her lost son. “A quiet, sorrowful,
deeply moving exploration of the powers of empathy and the obligations
of love,” our reviewer said.MIDDLE GRADEBEYOND COURAGE: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust. By Doreen Rappaport. (Candlewick, $22.99.)
This book about the Holocaust dwells on the choice to fight and resist
rather than the road to death. A lively, absorbing and eye-opening
history for young readers.THE FALSE PRINCE. By Jennifer A. Nielsen. (Scholastic, $17.99.)
Four orphaned boys and would-be princes are captured in a treacherous
medieval kingdom in the first book of a new series. Adam Gopnik, our
reviewer, called it a “page turner” and praised its “persuasively surly
and defiant character, and a realistic vein of violence.”HAND IN HAND: Ten Black Men Who Changed America. By Andrea Davis Pinkney. Illustrated by Brian Pinkney. (Disney-Jump at the Sun, $19.99.)
Benjamin Banneker, Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T.
Washington, A. Philip Randolph, Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson,
Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Barack Obama feature in this
collection.THE HERO’S GUIDE TO SAVING YOUR KINGDOM. By Christopher Healy. Illustrated by Todd Harris. (Walden Pond/HarperCollins, $16.99.)
The enchanting premise of this story is that four Princes Charming,
carried over from their fairy tales of origin, must band together to
track down Cinderella and restore harmony to their kingdom.THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER. By Jasper Fforde. (Harcourt/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.99.) A 15-year-old orphan, indentured to magicians, in a world where dragons are dying out. Fforde’s first book for young readers.LIAR & SPY. By Rebecca Stead. (Wendy Lamb, $15.99.) A bunch of misfits star in this contemporary tale, Stead’s follow-up to her Newbery Medal-winning “When You Reach Me.”THE SECRET TREE. By Natalie Standiford. (Scholastic, $16.99.) Two children, a summer and a tree that tells secrets in this story about neighborhood kids.SEE YOU AT HARRY’S. By Jo Knowles. (Candlewick, $16.99.)
With four siblings at its center, Knowles’s story is about a family who
run a restaurant and the commonplace and serious traumas they face.SPLENDORS AND GLOOMS. By Laura Amy Schlitz. (Candlewick, $17.99.) A Gothic novel, from the Newbery-winning author, about three children and a master puppeteer in Dickensian London.“WHO COULD THAT BE AT THIS HOUR?”By Lemony Snicket. Illustrated by Seth. (Little, Brown, $15.99.)
A prequel of sorts to “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” this humorous
riddle of a book is the start of a mock-autobiographical series.WONDER. By R. J. Palacio. (Knopf, $15.99.)
This novel tells the moving story of August Pullman, a 10-year-old boy
born with severe facial malformations, and the bullying he endures when
he attends school for the first time.PICTURE BOOKSBROTHERS AT BAT: The True Story of an Amazing All-Brother Baseball Team. By Audrey Vernick. Illustrated by Steven Salerno. (Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.99.)
The true story of the longest-running all-brother baseball team, 12
Acerra siblings who played together during the 1930s. A captivating
story, impeccable layout and glorious illustrations make this historical
account an unqualified winner.THE DAY LOUIS GOT EATEN. Written and illustrated by John Fardell. (Andersen Press, $16.95.)
A boy is eaten by a Gulper, which is eaten in turn by a Grabular, an
Undersnatch, a Spiney-Backed Guzzler and a Saber-Toothed Yumper. His
intrepid sister, traveling by bicycle and other hand-jiggered
contraptions, comes to the rescue. Hilarious and sweet, both. “I love
this book so much I want to eat it up,” our reviewer said.DRAGONS LOVE TACOS. By Adam Rubin. Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. (Dial, $16.99.)
Rubin and Salmieri, the team behind the equally hilarious “Those Darn
Squirrels!,” bring their kooky sensibility to this irresistible story
about what can go wrong at a taco party for dragons. Salmieri’s drawings
are not only a wacky delight, they’re also strangely beautiful.A GOLD STAR FOR ZOG. By Julia Donaldson. Illustrated by Axel Scheffler. (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic, $16.99.)
A school for dragons and a dragon-loving princess (who really wants to
be a doctor) are at the center of this rhyming tale from the team behind
“The Gruffalo” and “Room on the Broom.” Humor, heart and a worthy
heroine earn this story its own star.HELLO! HELLO!Written and illustrated by Matthew Cordell. (Disney-­Hyperion, $16.99.)
In this ode to nature and the palpable joys of pre-technology days, a
girl runs wild on a horse while her screen-­addicted family members tap
away indoors. The book’s “art is gloriously old-style,” our reviewer,
David Small, said. Its message is loud, clear and important.I’M BORED. By Michael Ian Black. Illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi. (Simon & Schuster, $16.99.)
Black, a comedian, has become a fine children’s book storyteller (“A
Pig Parade Is a Terrible Idea”). This original story features a bored
child, a bored potato and a bored flamingo. Readers will not be bored.KING ARTHUR’S VERY GREAT GRANDSON. Written and illustrated by Kenneth Kraegel. (Candlewick, $15.99.)
On the day of his sixth birthday, Henry Alfred Grummorson, the
great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of King Arthur, sets
out for peril and conquest. Alas, all he finds are peaceable beasts.
There are still dragons in this clever story by a first-time author and
illustrator.THIS IS NOT MY HAT. Written and illustrated by Jon Klassen. (Candlewick, $15.99.)
The hat is back, but this time it belongs to a fish, not a bear. It
belongs to a big fish, to be precise, but a small fish has stolen it.
You will probably guess what happens in this delightfully dark, comic
follow-up to “I Want My Hat Back.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:Correction: December 23, 2012
The list of Notable Children’s Books on Dec. 2 misstated the age of
Arn Chorn-Pond, the subject of Patricia McCormick’s “Never Fall Down,”
at the time the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. He was 11, not 9.
(Because of an editing error, the incorrect age also appeared in a review of the book on May 13.)

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